History of Rent and Mortgage Strikes

Lately, rents have peaked to the point scarcely anyone can afford them; if they rise any further, a double-digit percentage of Canadians may end up homeless. Home prices have shot beyond the reach of even doctors, to the point that it’s contributing to the family doctor shortage here in BC. The crunch just seems surreal, and the government doesn’t seem to take the situation seriously.

So what are people to do? Well, since housing crises are recurrent throughout History, how about we have a look back and see what people did in the past? What did people do when they could not pay the rent anymore? The simple answer is that they didn’t. But then neither did they have to leave peacefully; instead, they organised strikes, in which large groups of renters would withhold rent (or not, if they couldn’t afford it in the first place) while refusing to vacate the premises. The thinking goes that the government cannot evict everyone, and would think twice before evicting a large number of poor people fighting to keep their homes.

The Anti-Rent Wars of 1830-40s

The earliest rent strike I stumbled upon goes back to the nineteenth century in the US, in what would become known as the Anti-Rent Wars. The rebels strongly objected to having to pay absurdly high rent to landlords who didn’t even hold land titles, in a blatant example of modern-age feudalism. So these mere farmers organised a rent strike, withholding the money while issuing a “Declaration of Independence” which read like a precursor to tenant rights declarations.

So how did it go? Here’s a quote from the article:

SVR IV responded pretty much as King George III did; he ignored their demands and sent local sheriffs in to collect. They refused. The Anti-Rent Wars were on. They would last for more than a decade, and, though Kennedy says, ‘It wasn’t war, it was popular rebellion,” people suffered and died for their cause.

Source: Hudson Valley Magazine

I particularly like how the protesters stepped up their game in response to government brutality, going as far as tarring and feathering their opponents. The situation escalated to the point that the government and the landlords had to yield, especially since the anti-rent movement was gaining traction within the government itself, with its own political party (just like the antiwar movement and the movement against COVID restrictions morphed from mere grassroots movements into political entities).

The 1969 St. Louis Rent Strike

Another historically significant rent strike took place in predominantly black St. Louis, Missouri neighbourhoods in 1969, protesting the lack of affordable housing and the squalid living conditions people were subjected to. They realised just how much power they were wielding, best summarised as follows:

Let’s stop being so scared of what ‘they’ are going to do. We have the money, we pay their salaries.

Jean King, President of the Citywide Rent Strike Committee

In the end, they withheld so much money, over the span of nine months, that the St. Louis Housing Authority nearly went under. And the strikers won, leading to what would become known at the Brooke Amendment to housing legislation, which set rent in affordable housing to 25% of the renter’s income. While this legacy is being questioned, it remains an example of grassroots movement engaging in civil disobedience and winning their fight.

The 2020 COVID Rent and Mortgage Strikes

More recently, COVID restrictions led to millions of people being unable to work, and of course pay their rents and mortgages. The US government responded in part with a moratorium on federally-funded housing evictions, but that was way too little, and in a sense way too late: people still remembered the recession of 2008 and the massive mortgage bubble burst leading to millions of underwater mortgages across the country, which the government had responded to by bailing out the banks while leaving the homeowners exposed, leading to calls for mortgage strikes.

So this time the masses responded with national rent and mortgage strikes, culminating with the May 1st rent strike. What is ironic is that many renters withheld the rent by not applying for the federal rent relief program, because their grievances weren’t limited to high rent, but also apartments falling into disrepair, widespread poverty, and of course the lockdowns themselves. The protesters even shot for rent forgiveness during the crisis, as the federal and state moratoriums and rent relief programs were set to expire, threatening millions with evictions and homelessness.

And it kept going throughout the year, lead by groups such as We Strike Together. It also led to massive calls for housing legislation and collective bargaining for renters (just like for workers) with campaigns like Rent Strike Bargain and proposals to nationalise affordable housing. It remains to be seen how much can be achieved this way, but at least one fact remains: They can’t evict us all. And that means strikers have a lot of bargaining power they shouldn’t be afraid to wield.

2022?

With the plain obscenity of the current housing crisis, coupled with the massive popular discontent over a myriad of social issues, it would seem rent and mortgage strikes are poised to make a comeback. After all, being unable to pay the rent is the most predictable trigger for these measures, while civil disobedience is en vogue in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic lockdown measures. I would say it’s not a matter of if, but when they happen. So when to expect the next national rent and mortgage strike in BC? Is it going to be 2022, or… 2023? And what remedies will be sought this time?

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